Comments on: Who’s up for an asteroid rodeo?http://hotair.com/archives/2013/04/07/whos-up-for-an-asteroid-rodeo/
The world’s first, full-service conservative Internet broadcast networkTue, 16 Feb 2016 23:43:33 +0000hourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1By: W63 TOP NEWS » NASA's Wasteful Spending on Space Programshttp://hotair.com/archives/2013/04/07/whos-up-for-an-asteroid-rodeo/comment-page-1/#comment-6869774
Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:03:08 +0000http://hotair.com/?p=253611#comment-6869774[…] to the online blog Hot Air, “The capture plan is being described as a ‘baggie with a draw string’ to snag […]
]]>By: Spaced Cowboys | Beef Blogonoffhttp://hotair.com/archives/2013/04/07/whos-up-for-an-asteroid-rodeo/comment-page-1/#comment-6862509
Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:05:01 +0000http://hotair.com/?p=253611#comment-6862509[…] NASA wants to lasso an asteroid, and park it near the moon. Unfortunately asteroids don't sit still, and it would be like targeting one car in a trillion spot parking lot. Thanks to telescopes and computers it won't be impossible, but roping a 500 ton rock hurtling through space will be harder than roping a calf at a Wild West Rodeo. Of course most normal people want to keep asteroids away from the earth, and that's why the government is doing it. They hope they can mine dilithium crystals and create a pollution free, perpetual energy source. Like Spock says "humans are highly illogical." […]
]]>By: MichiCanuckhttp://hotair.com/archives/2013/04/07/whos-up-for-an-asteroid-rodeo/comment-page-1/#comment-6862466
Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:50:25 +0000http://hotair.com/?p=253611#comment-6862466As I said in the headlines, this appears to be mostly an effort to give the SLS (aka the Senate Launch System) something to do. The mission itself is definitely worthwhile as part of a project to set up a Lagrange point way station with fuel depots and lunar tele-robotic capability. Learning how to utilize space resources in space is absolutely vital if we ever want to be a space faring civilization. We’ll eventually need that capability to ensure long term survival.

However, using the SLS makes no sense and it likely will never fly. It’s being crushed under its own bloated funding. The mission would be cheaper, quicker and more capable with Dragon 2, and inflatable module and Falcon Heavies. All of these will be be both available and affordable long before Orion + SLS ever gets off the ground.

This is not likely to be an issue in the next 100 years at the least, probably more because space exploration is all but dead.

MelonCollie on April 7, 2013 at 10:06 PM

Right now, there is a spacecraft headed for a flyby of Pluto in 2015. NASA has spacecraft orbiting Saturn, Mars, the Moon, Earth, and Mercury. There is another spacecraft that just left the orbit of one asteroid and is headed for another asteroid.

Two lunar orbiters just finished mapping the gravity fields of the Moon. Another lunar orbiter is taking high-resolution photos of the lunar surface with such clarity that the sites of the Apollo landings are clearly visible in its pictures. Another spacecraft is positioned next to the Moon, collecting data about the nature of the boundary layers at the edge of our solar system.

We have two active robot explorers on the surface of Mars, reporting back to Earth via a Mars-orbiting communications satellite that’s been operating since 2001. There’s also a Mars Reconnaisance satellite, taking high-resolution pictures of the Martian surface and weather systems.

Meanwhile, at least four Sun-orbiting satellites are keeping track of solar activity, forming a solar weather network that can warn Earth of approaching solar storms much earlier than Earth-based observatories.

The Spitzer Space Telescope trails Earth in a solar orbit, viewing the infrared spectrum and objects too dim to be seen by Earth-based telescopes. Hubble remains in Earth orbit, on its 22nd year of photographing the deepest reaches of the Universe. The Kepler Space Telescope has discovered its 26th extra-solar planet this year, continuing to reshape our basic understanding of planetary formation in the galaxy.

And five months ago marked the 12th anniversary of continuous human presence in space, on board the International Space Station, a creation of not just NASA, but the Russians, the European Space Agency, Japan’s JAXA organization, and the Canadian space program.

For the next 16 months, we’re going to continue to lease seats on the Russian Soyuz program until the Dragon, Orion, and Dream Chaser spacecraft take over ferry flights to low Earth orbit.

What happens to the earth’s orbit and rotation if we start bringing additional mass (asteroid mining, whatever…) to Earth?

ParisParamus on April 7, 2013 at 6:54 PM

We’d have to bring in additional mass the size of a mountain range for it to make any measurable difference at all. This is not likely to be an issue in the next 100 years at the least, probably more because space exploration is all but dead.

A robot ship goes to the asteroid belt, bags an asteroid and sends it towards Earth. The black bag containing the asteroid is undetectable from Earth…

The bag’s path is adjusted so as to have it make contact with atmo over a city or other target… taking out as much infrastructure and human life as the asteroid’s pre-selected size is intended to eliminate.

40,000 or so, tons a year is equal to what we send beyond earth’s orbit.

cozmo on April 7, 2013 at 7:31 PM

Dude, our primary problem is dust?!? The earth is getting heavier because the Martians are shaking their welcome mat out into space?!? WTH? Obviously we need an interplanetary housekeeping treaty to deal with this. After all, doesn’t all that particulate matter contribute to global warming or something? What, are they trying to kill us down here?

(I thought the last statement I made before obviated the need for a sarc tag. But, it’s good to know that someone is actually calculating this stuff.)

I wonder…if someone at NASA or somewhere else finds a good size asteroid or comet and do the math, and find out it’s a good possibility it’s going to hit the Earth in a month or two…what do they do, release it publicly? Or sit on the info for as long as possible? Would you really want to know?

JetBoy on April 7, 2013 at 7:41 PM

JetBoy:Good to see ya,and,

good points,there is a close encounter for Mars in 2014,
had to back-track in SW`s archive!:)

COLLISION COURSE?

A comet is heading for Mars, and there is a chance that it might hit the Red Planet in October 2014. An impact wouldn’t necessarily mean the end of NASA’s Mars program, but it would transform the program along with Mars itself. Get the full story and a video from Science@NASA.

I wonder…if someone at NASA or somewhere else finds a good size asteroid or comet and do the math, and find out it’s a good possibility it’s going to hit the Earth in a month or two…what do they do, release it publicly? Or sit on the info for as long as possible? Would you really want to know?

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

It already increases every year due to the meteorites that strike it every year.

cozmo on April 7, 2013 at 7:03 PM

And it decreases every time we toss some of our recyclables into orbit or to Mars. So, it’s a wash. Unless, of course, meteor strikes are the karmic answer to us sending things off the planet? Ooooohhhhh…….